Meditation
Directors of souls across all times recommend at least 30 minutes of meditation daily. Saints and other ascetical masters, understanding the importance and challenges to this divine communication, have written aids for their spiritual pupils that span from as little to a week to as long as the full calendar year. May at least one of these 40+ resources benefit your soul in this ascent.
Meditation Masterlist
The original collection of meditations will remain as-is below, with new entries being continually added to this Google Sheet (accessible as a spreadsheet or as a webpage) with multiple tabs and functional hyperlinks.
Daily Meditations for the Whole Year (18 Entries)
Consider this your new New Years' Resolution.
Matins Lessons
Traditional Matins include a trio of lessons at the end of each Nocturn, and many days in the pre-1955 calendar have three Nocturns. In such cases, the first trio is a seasonal Scripture reading, the second is a exposition on the feast day, and the last is a sermon or homily from a Church Father. You could visit Divinum Officium (choose "Divino Afflatu - 1954" and "Matutinum") for instant access to these readings; a helpful daily feed of this is available on Substack. If you prefer a more static approach then you could consult this English translation of the Roman Breviary.
Roman Martyrology
On any given day around a dozen saints are commemorated in the Catholic Church, amounting to over 4000 a year. For centuries summaries of their bloody and unbloody victories have been recalled through the Martyrology. The latest of these accounts to be translated into English was fortuitously published in 1962.
Butler's Lives of the Saints
Rev. Alban Butler's famous Lives of the Saints, a summary of the Acta Sanctorum, comes in several different versions: a complete 12-volume set broken up by month, abridged 4-volume or 1-volume works, and an additional 1-volume Pictorial Lives edited by John Gilmary Shea.
The Liturgical Year
The celebrated compendium authored by Dom Prosper Guéranger, OSB, the Benedictine Abbot of Solesmes, meticulously steps through each day of the Temporal and Sanctoral cycles. Adventurous types may want all 7398 pages in one PDF; others can freely peruse each of the 15 volumes individually here or here.
Divine Intimacy
This recent work by the Discalced Carmelite Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D., is typically a traditionalist's gateway into the genre of meditations. Depending on which edition you have in your hands, carefully consider whether the old or new liturgical calendar is being followed.
St. Thomas Aquinas
A Dominican with a lot of time on his hands compiled the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas into a Latin devotional with the interesting title Medulla S. Thomae Aquinatis per omnes Anni Liturgici dies distributa seu Meditationes ex operibus S. Thomase depromptae. The more common excerpt from this are his Meditations for Lent (discussed later below), but an American high school teacher took on the task of translating the whole work for the benefit of his students.
The Life and Teaching of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Vita et doctrina Jesu Christi, the influential work by Fr. Nikola Avancini, S.J., has been translated into several Romance languages. Its Spanish translation are among the files in this Telegram page:
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Facsimile of the original (Telegram)
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Lent (Telegram)
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Time after Pentecost I (Telegram)
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Time after Pentecost II (Telegram)
Its sole complete English translation comes from the hand of Anglican Bishop Kenneth Mackenzie.
A Year with the Saints
This anonymous work presents episodes from the lives of spiritual greats like St. Teresa of Avila and St. Vincent de Paul, giving examples on how we can go about practicing the various Christian virtues. It has been re-released by TAN under the title Cultivating Virtue. A recording of the book can be found here.
Fr. Andre Jean Marie Hamon
This 5-volume work by Fr. Andre Jean Marie Hamon has been making its rounds recently thanks to the efforts of some Trad Aussies and Sensus Fidelium. In one layman's opinion the content is extremely solid, but this same layman must advise that the constant references to the Paris Missal and Breviary betray its Neo-Gallican authorship (more detail on this topic can be found here and here). If you happen to harbor scruples about this, choose any other of the above works.
Weekly Meditations for the Whole Year (9 Entries)
Sunday sermons to supplement the ones you hear from the pulpit.
St. John Vianney
In 1901, a complete set (almost 400 pages) of sermons by the Curé of Ars were translated and published under the descriptive title Sermons for All the Sundays and Feast Days of the Year. Recordings of all the sermons can be found here and here. Be wary of look-alikes, though: a 1960 collection simply titled Sermons is abridged to nearly half the length.
St. Francis de Sales
For all you French readers, two collections of the Saint's Oeuvres (or Works) are available: a 12-volume Paris set edited by Louis Vivès, and a 21-volume Annecy set edited by Jean Niérat. Both sets include several volumes of his sermons for the majority of Sundays and numerous feast days.
Paris
Annecy
Rev. Martin Francis Toal
Rev. Toal's 4-volume The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers from the late-1950s presents the Gospel of the Sunday with associated commentary from the Catena Aurea followed by several complete sermons by the Church Fathers. To access each individual volume...
Recordings of the complete set can be accessed here (search for "Great Fathers) and here.
Fr. Franz Hunolt
Fr. Hunolt's famous Sermons is a 6-volume collection, each on a separate theme and each containing 72 sermons covering Sundays and Holydays. The English translation by Rev. J. Allen, D.D. divided each of the German volumes in half, doubling the set to 12. The topics covered are...
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Volume I: The Different States in Life
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Volume II: The Seven Deadly Sins
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Volume III: Penance
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Volume IV: The Christian Virtues
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Volume V: The Four Last Things
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Volume VI: Our Lord and His Blessed Mother, and the Saints
An abridged translation (55 sermons each) of Volumes 1-5 by Augustine Wirth, O.S.B. can be accessed in PDF and mp3 here.
Bp. William Durandus
Durandus's illustrious Rationale divinorum officiorum, or “Rationale for the Divine Offices," is a key resource on medieval liturgical customs. Two of its eight books offer reflections on high feasts during the year: the Proper of the Time (Book 6) and the Proper of Saints (Book 7). It is of course accessible in Latin, though the entries for some days have been offered in English by the editor of New Liturgical Movement.
Monthly Meditations for the Whole Year (5 Entries)
Focus your prayer intentions month-to-month on a particular virtue to practice or a Holy Personage.
School of Christian Perfection
In this instructional work, St. Alphonsus de Liguori desires that his spiritual children learn the following virtues...
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January: Faith
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February: Hope
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March: Love of God
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April: Love of Neighbor
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May: Poverty and Detachment
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June: Chastity
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July: Obedience
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August: Meekness and Humility
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September: Mortification
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October: Humiliation
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November: Prayer
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December: Self-Denial and Love of the Cross
Divine Intimacy
The meditations in this book are loosely arranged according to the Carmelite monthly themes...
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December - The Ideal: Holiness, Intimacy with God, The Apostolate - The Mystery of the Incarnation
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January - Jesus: His Person, His Works, Our Relations with Him - The Church - The Sacraments
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February and March - Interior Purification and the Exercise of Abnegation - The Passion of Jesus
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April - The Life of Prayer
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May - Our Blessed Lady - The Holy Ghost
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June - Jesus in the Holy Eucharist - The Sacred Heart of Jesus - The Most Holy Trinity
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July - The Divine Perfections - The Theological Virtues
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August and September - The Moral Virtues - The Gifts of the Holy Ghost - The Beatitudes
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October and November - The Apostolate - Union with God
A Year with the Saints
The accounts of the saints are arranged according to a specific virtue to practice...
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January: Perfection
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February: Humility
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March: Mortification
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April: Patience
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May: Meekness
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June: Obedience
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July: Simplicity
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August: Diligence
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September: Prayer
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October: Confidence
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November: Charity
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December: Union
Monthly Dedications
You may know that October is the Month of the Rosary, but what of the others? Well, as it turns out...
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January is dedicated to the Holy Name and Childhood of Jesus
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February is dedicated to the Holy Family
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March is dedicated to St. Joseph
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April is dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament
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May is dedicated to Mary
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June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
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July is dedicated to the Precious Blood of Jesus
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August is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
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September is dedicated to the Seven Dolours of Mary
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October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary and the Holy Angels
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November is dedicated to the Poor Souls in Purgatory
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December is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception
Feast of the Apostles
The Church has wisely spread out the feasts of the Apostles and Evangelists to have the end of almost every month commemorated by one...
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January 25th - The Conversion of St. Paul
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February 24th - St. Matthias
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(March 25th - The Annunciation)
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April 25th - St. Mark the Evangelist & The Greater Litanies (Rogation)
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May 11th - SS. Philip & James the Lesser
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June 29th - SS. Peter & Paul
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July 25th - St. James the Greater
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August 24th - St. Bartholomew
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September 21st - St. Matthew
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October 18th - St. Luke the Evangelist
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October 28th - SS. Simon & Jude
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November 30th - St. Andrew (and the start of his Novena)
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December 21st - St. Thomas
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(December 25th - Christmas)
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December 27th - St. John
Daily Meditations for a Liturgical Season (7 Entries)
The penitential seasons of Advent and Lent are a rich soil for intensive meditation.
Lent Readings from the Fathers
Sermons by various Church Fathers edited by the Anglican priest William James Early Bennett. The translations come from the Library of the Fathers, fruit of the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement spearheaded by Edward Bouverie Pusey and John Henry Cardinal Newman. It covers Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday. Recordings for each day, formatted for burning onto five CDs, can be found here.
Marquess of Bute - Lent
John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, was an English convert whose claim to fame in today's Tradisphere is having had translated the entire Roman Breviary for the 20th Century Anglo (see "Matins Lessons" at the very top of this page for a link). From that, he compiled a Lenten devotional with 40 lessons from the Church Fathers with 13 hymns interspersed throughout.
St. Thomas Aquinas - Lent
Segment of the Medulla Meditations (first section above) covering the days from Septuagesima Sunday to Holy Saturday. Unfortunately, modern reprints excise the entire Septuagesima season. In this vein, a partial recording (starting at Ash Wednesday) can be found here.
Daily Meditations for One to Four Months (6 Entries)
Works for helping one make a retreat.
St. Louis de Montfort
His seminal True Devotion to Mary (translated into English by the illustrious Fr. Faber) must be read in its entirety before anyone dream of consecrating themselves to Jesus through Mary. Once one is called to undergo consecration, the saint prescribes (Part II, Chapter IV, Paragraph 227) 33 days of preparation. In the 1940s, the Montfort Brothers proposed a collection of readings for each preparatory period from which all other consecration guides are derived.
Bishop Richard Challoner
The good bishop returns with the interestingly-titled Think Well On't, or Reflections on the Great Truth of the Christian Religion for Every Day in the Month. A recording of this work can be found here.
Don Gaspar Gilli
Don Gilli is the editor of The Month of Mary, According to the Spirit of St. Francis of Sales, a retreat with daily meditations by the great saint for the month of May. A clean PDF version can be accessed here, though it may take time to load.
Rev. François Nepveu
The English-translated work Meditations for Every Day in the Month is an abridgment of Pensées, ou Réflexions Chrétiennes pour tous les Jours de l'Année by Rev. François Nepveu, S.J., and sets out to train readers on practicing mental prayer according to the "modified Sulpician method." Spanish readers, on the other hand, can enjoy a complete 4-volume translation under the title Pensamientos o Reflexiones Cristianas.
Daily Meditations for One to Two Weeks (6 Entries)
Meditations for special short periods of the year (Octaves, Novenas, etc.).
St. Alphonsus de Liguori - Last End
Sometimes appended to the end of his Preparation for Death, his Maxims of Eternity guide a soul on a one-week retreat in meditating on their last end. You can also listen to these readings here.
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Sunday: The End of Man
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Monday: The Importance of Our Last End
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Tuesday: Mortal Sin
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Wednesday: Death
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Thursday: Judgment
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Friday: Hell
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Saturday: The Eternity of the Pains of Hell
Daily Dedications
The days of the week traditionally have distinct dedications, usually based on the votive Masses assigned for the day...
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Sunday is dedicated to the Resurrection & the Holy and Undivided Trinity
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Monday is dedicated to the Holy Ghost & the Souls in Purgatory
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Tuesday is dedicated to the Holy Angels
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Wednesday is dedicated to St. Joseph
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Thursday is dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament
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Friday is dedicated to Christ's Passion and His Sacred Heart
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Saturday is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and her Immaculate Heart